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The XFL is coming back. How exciting. It is like learning Pauly Shore is returning to acting, or leg warmers are the new retro-fashion trend.

You might think, interesting, then move on to things that actually matter.

But wait just a minute. Founder Vince McMahon says this time the XFL will be different. There will be no gimmicks — this is new because the original league was based almost exclusively on gimmicks.

It is going to include only law-abiding players — if you have been convicted of a crime, you’re not allowed in the league. It is going to require players to stand during the national anthem — which would not make it unique, just different from the NFL.

OK, so none of those things guarantee success. But there is one other aspect the original incarnation didn’t really have that this one could lean on: fantasy participation.

In 2001, the fantasy industry was a niche. It was just beginning to take off. ESPN, CBS, Yahoo and others were just starting to dabble in fantasy content and hosting options. Fantasy players often used smaller sites like Fanball and Sandbox to house their leagues. The first dreams of daily fantasy formats had yet to stoke imaginations.

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Now, fantasy leagues are everywhere. They dominate office water-cooler conversations. They have dedicated shows on major networks and dedicated channels on some television and radio platforms. There is an entire daily industry that offers immediate payoffs.

The Twittersphere was ripe with enthusiasm, much of it fantasy-related — from those expressing excitement to play to those who envision the fantasy element giving the league more staying power.

Is fantasy interest enough to buoy a start-up league? A league that has attached itself to bad branding of the past? A league that then discards much of what that brand represented in the first place?

It is sort of like if McDowell’s failed because it couldn’t compete with Big Kahuna Burger, decided to return, only this time they’re cooking bad chicken sandwiches, yet still call themselves McDowell’s.

But let’s set aside the branding issues and focus on the practical. How watchable will the games be? Let’s see: The best talent will go to the NFL, so they won’t be able to compete on skill level. The XFL will have to compete for the next-best talent with the CFL.

Likewise, the best coaching options will remain in the NFL and with big-time college programs, which still will be able to offer more cash and exposure. Would you rather be a coordinator for an NFL team or a head coach on a team that is in a league with a small viewing audience? Where success is marginalized by inferior competition?

Worse, McMahon has stated he does not plan on being a feeder system for the NFL. He has discussed “re-imagining” the game, though he did say he was not attempting to “reinvent” it.

But if he doesn’t want a feeder system, then logic says it must be different in some tangible form. And the more different it is, the less likely the NFL will be to cherry-pick its best players. Because the players will be picked from a pool of NFL wannabes, it gives those players less motivation to join the league.

Oh, and no criminals allowed. No word on how strict such a policy would be, but for a league with a likely talent-pool problem, eliminating around 5 percent of options (the approximate NFL arrest rate, according to NFLarrest.com) cannot be considered insignificant.